Three fun ideas for teaching grammar to TEFL students

Grammar. The mere mention of the word strikes fear into the heart of the most ardent language learner. Many EFL and ESL teachers also feel sick to their stomachs at the thought of preparing and giving a grammar lesson. But what should we do? If lexicon and vocabulary are the building blocks of language, then certainly grammar is the mortar or structure that holds them together. Teaching it and learning it are, therefore, unavoidable. The only thing to do then is to make it as interesting, enjoyable, or at least as painless as possible. Here are some ideas to help you do just that.

1. Use grammar games

Both students and teachers love using games in the EFL ESL English classroom. Therefore, make extensive use of games to teach and reinforce critical grammar points. What, you say you don’t know any grammar games? Or maybe you’ll joke that you don’t have a good stock of them, so you can’t count on employing them regularly to use in your classes? On the contrary! They abound on the websites of English teachers, trade publications, and in the minds and hearts of their colleagues around the world. If you have a good game to share, post it on an ELT forum or a TEFL materials/activity website. Create your own based on popular games you are familiar with. Use turn-taking and chase games, card games, board games, or TPR-based games to get maximum engagement from your students. Actually, you should go in there too. Don’t be a lazy butt.

2. Use movie and video clips

“Go ahead, make my day.” Now, who exactly was the first to say that? Yes, yes, I’m sure you know. Now change it to other verb tenses. Change it to a question. Change it to different question forms. Make it imperative. You get the idea.

“I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.” If you don’t know the initial speaker of that line, three slaps with a wet noodle for you. What verb tense is there? Now change it into different shapes.

Watch a three to seven minute clip of a movie or video scene. Write which grammatical forms you hear. Then have the class do it. Does everyone agree? Nope? What are the different ways they come up with? Which is correct? Go back and watch the clip again and check it out. Do it until you are satisfied.

3. Use audio-only segments

Now it’s getting harder. Listen to an audio clip. A business, story, talk, or news segment. From where? The radio, cassettes, TV, CDs/DVDs, etc. Note the grammar points used. Can you change any of them? How? Why? What does the change do to the meaning? Does it become formal or informal? Imperative? Humorous? Don’t forget to have students practice saying these short dialogues out loud. (Everyone wants to be Dirty Harry or the Godfather) My students like the scenes from “The Matrix” and “Frantic” with Harrison Ford. James Bond movie scenes are also highly appreciated by my students. The ladies like to be Julia Roberts or Demi Moore to just about any of her cops. Angela Bassett and Sigourney Weaver frequently play “strong women” with good dialogue and soliloquies that give the female students character choices. It works for me and it definitely works for them.

Try it yourself. You’ll see. Just remember to pick an interesting clip that isn’t too long. It must have a snappy dialogue between two characters or a joking response from one of them. You could even have students suggest some clips, shows, and/or scenes to use.

So Bunky, don’t let the term “grammar” strike fear into the hearts of your students (or you) ever again. Do some grammar work: Teaching activities that use these techniques and grammar could become your favorite type of lesson and theirs. If you have any questions, suggestions or additional guidance, feel free to contact me at: [email protected]